Recently during a training session I had the fortunate opportunity to be reminded of some basic martial maxims. The class focus was on in-fighting techniques to take-down and control tactics. In this case it was elbow strikes to standing arm bar take-down. With a few repetitions of the said techniques I decided to show the arm bar escape (re-establishing leverage via pulling in your elbow close to your body or vice versa and then rolling out). After successfully escaping the arm-bar exercise my student/partner went into continue mode which became an impromptu grappling match. I chose to slap in a guillotine in half guard over acquiring full guard (mistake #1: position over submission), after which he eventually powered out. He then slowed crawled towards the wall with me in tow in half guard. At this point I am thinking that this would be good for me as I would be able to use the wall to get up (ie wall walk). Instead of heading perpendicular to the wall, my partner positioned us parallel to the wall and beside my wavemaster tower bag. Now I am stuck between the wall and the tower bag which meant I had no room to reposition or sweep (mistake #2: not fully analysing or recognizing the situation of potential hazards/obstructions). At this point I had no leverage and no room to work my bottom game which left me to rely solely on strength on strength tug-of-war for wrist control. Suffice to say it was exhausting (mistake #3: under-estimating my partners strength and ability - ground game). After a few minutes of wrist control war, we reached a stalemate, bumped fists and resumed the class lessons. Opposed to letting my ego get bruised, I recognized that these lessons were required as it was a needed wake up call to shed the complacency. I realized I was not fully prepared - yes it was just an exercise, but I should be ready to respond and react on the fly. What I took away - always train at 110% and be ready in all situations in the gym and the street!

It's been a year since my last post, as I have decided to dedicate this post to my late father who was my inspiration and role model.

Bak Mei is known for it's power generation via luk ging, sei ngoi ging, and baat ging so I've decided to make a video breaking down a simple technique to showcase words to action.

Our focus will be the Arrow punch (Jin Choi). It is called Jin Choi for the fact that the stance looks like an archer holding a bow preparing to loose an arrow.

The power of the arrow punch comes from the turning of the hip verses just utilizing the shoulders as you would in a boxing jab. the fact that you are perpendicular to the opponent when the punch hits allows you to twist your hips to facilitate the torque to the strike therefore increasing the power of the "jab".

AddendumFurther to the subject of power generation as it pertains to this arrow punch as a "power jab", I've been recently asked by some students the differences in ging (power). I will start off by first differentiating between strength (lik) and power (ging). Simply put muscular strength is blunt and dull while developed power is sudden and sharp.ie. punching with shoulder vs punching with the waist/hips.

As you can see there is much more to Bak Mei than just the external motions. It takes time to become proficient at each level before you can move forward. Meaning that you must understand proper alignment (luk ging), before you can properly practice sei ging. Luk ging and Sei ngoi ging must be understood and properly performed before you can execute baat ging.

The etymology of Martial arts comes from the Latin word Mars (the Roman god of war). In simple terms it means war arts. In ancient times, warfare involved melee combat with edged or blunt weapons and often times hand to hand. Now in modern times, warfare is mostly waged by various advanced technology and as such has replaced the man on man type fights on the battlefield. Today, martial arts are instead used for personal self defence, sport combat, as an art form, or preserving tradition. In this discussion we will look at the martial aspect of training.As we know, most traditional martial arts training begins with forms play (katas). Forms are good as they catalogue the array of techniques of the respective style, it can also be loosely seen as a type of shadow boxing. However some practitioners focus solely on forms whilst falsely believing that it encompasses all facets of martial training. Mind you if it is the practitioners objective to utilize the forms for acrobatic/performance nature then that is a different story altogether, as it is the artistic element that they are attaining (i.e. Wushu demonstrations showcasing forms). On the other side, if a practitioner truly wishes to attain pragmatic combative ability then they must also focus on other areas. These include bag/pad work (striking punching bags and having a feeder to work target mitts while you apply combos in a dynamic manner) which are essential to building power and timing. Physical conditioning is another important step. This entails cardio and strength training, as a certain amount of strength and endurance are required if you plan on using you skills against a live opponent(s). Which leads to the next stage, sparring (including chi sau, luk kiu, etc). This is required to gain perspective on distance, speed, and timing. There are different levels of sparring ranging from point no-contact to full power. To gain FULL potential in your combative value, full power and speed must be used (of course you may always choose to tone down the level of power if that is your preference, but keep in mind this will cause a reduction of training efficacy accordingly). Some practitioners may argue that certain techniques would be too deadly to use at full power. This can be offset by safety equipment ranging from the wide variety of head guards, chest protectors, and gloves which are available and can be worn to suit the practitioner preferences. Still others would argue that the big 16 oz boxing gloves would hinder certain hand techniques. Certainly this can be solved by using open finger gloves such as the 4-6 oz mma glove which allows the practitioner to apply any and all ranges of motion as a bare hand would while still providing safety.In conclusion Martial arts focusing on the combative side should be trained as such. Comparitvely looking at other athletic endeavours such as hockey, a player gets on the ice with the proper gear, a baseball player does more than just play catch with his dad, and as Bruce Lee stated: "a swimmer cannot train on dry land, they must get into the water to do that". So in a nutshell a martial artist who wants to acquire combative skills should then do more than just play forms… Be without ego, have respect, and train hard.